There are many different types of shooting device in common use today, in relation to sport and recreation, law enforcement and crime prevention, protection of people and/or property, and military applications. Accordingly, many different types of weapons/equipment exist in this regard, depending on their intended use. Thus, for example, tazers and firearms are used by military personnel, the police and other law enforcement agencies, shotguns are used in the sports of clay pigeon shooting and target shooting, and bows and arrows are used in the sport of archery. Other sports that involve accurately launching or hitting a projectile, such as a ball, include cricket and golf, both of which utilize a bat or club to hit a ball in a targeted direction.
Ocular dominance is a natural phenomenon in which the brain prefers visual input from one eye over the other, and which goes largely unnoticed in most human activities which require aim, such as those noted above and many others. Cross dominance in particular can cause such problems to be exacerbated, where a person's dominant eye is on the side of their non-dominant hand, e.g. where a right handed person has a dominant left eye.
In shooting, for example, the shooter must relate the gun to a target by focusing on it with both eyes. However, cross dominant shooters cannot see the barrel correctly when the shotgun is mounted on the side of their dominant hand. This makes it very difficult for them to judge the real location of the barrel and thus relate it to the target accurately. Another such issue in shooting is the sight of a double image, or ghost image, of the barrel while looking with both eyes at a target in the distance, and may appear stronger depending on how weak the shooter's ocular dominance is. Seeing a strong double image of the barrel may confuse the shooter about its correct position, and again make it difficult to relate it to the target accurately. Both of these issues can, of course, have a severe detrimental effect on the shooter's aim and, therefore, performance. Similar issues arise in other sports, pastimes and applications, where accurate aim of an elongate piece of equipment is required.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,844,188 describes apparatus, specifically designed for shoulder-mounted firearms, that seeks to address these issues, specifically in relation to shooters having ocular cross dominance. The apparatus comprises a base having a threaded hole for receiving an upstanding rod. The rod includes a slit for receiving a semi-transparent blade, and the base includes a longitudinal slit for mounting to the trigger guard of a shotgun for use. When so mounted, and with the firearm shouldered on the side of the dominant hand, the blade covers the line of sight of the shooter's other eye, such that it cannot see the barrel or aiming bead, but allows that eye to see the target at all times. The principal utility of the described device is to allow shooters with ocular cross dominance to shoot from their dominant hand, with both eyes open and without causing eyestrain, but it obscures one of the shooter's eyes.
However, there are number of drawbacks with known devices of this type. Firstly, although the target is visible to both eyes, the barrel and aiming bead are obscured from one eye, whereas it is highly preferable to maintain maximum visibility to both eyes when taking aim. Furthermore, the described device is only suitable for counteracting the effects of ocular cross dominance, rather than ocular dominance more generally. Still further, the device is specifically intended for, and suitable only when mounted using a shoulder-mounted firearm used for shooting moving targets, whereas it would be highly desirable to provide an apparatus and method for use more generally in counteracting the effects of ocular cross dominance in a wide range of pastimes and applications in which accurate aiming of an elongate item of equipment is required, and aspects of the present invention seek to address at least some of the above issues.